I DECIDED this year that when Parliament went into its long summer recess (the last one we shall have that is so long, I am glad to say) I would spend time working with our key public services in this area so I can see for myself what the work is and what the issues and problems are.

I'm not interested in just turning up to shake people's hands and have a picture taken, but in

actually joining people at work.

Many people talk to me about the problems in our public services - that public service workers are hard to recruit and even harder to retain because of the high cost of living in the South East.

Everyone, I think, acknowledges our public services need more investment.

I started last week by spending part of a shift with Reading's street cleaners. I go out knocking on doors most weekends, and in the Cemetery Junction area and in central and east Reading in the past few months it was litter and street cleaning that were of the greatest concern to most people.

I was therefore very pleased to hear that Reading Borough Council was changing the way it cleaned the streets to give a better service, and sure enough, more recently, not only did fewer people complain on the doorstep but some said they could see an improvement.

I started the shift at 5.45am (not as early as most of the workers) in Hosier Street. I was given gloves, a litter-picker, a sack, and a uniform, including a fluorescent tabard. It took me two-and-a-half hours to get Hosier Street clear of litter, and boy was I proud of how nice it looked.

My colleagues were very polite to me but I think any of them could have done it in half the time.

It was fine doing this job on a beautiful July morning with the sun streaming down, but no doubt on a dark November morning in an icy drizzle it would not be so fine - but with just as much litter.

We stopped for a tea break at about 8.15am and I was beginning to enjoy myself. My new colleagues were extremely cheerful and positive about their work. They all said they liked working outdoors and they liked the satisfaction of seeing the street clean after they had been there, even though it takes only minutes for it to be

littered again.

It's pretty hard physical work for someone like me who hasn't done manual labour for a long time.

While we were in the town centre, Broad Street and St Mary's Butts began to get crowded with people on their way to work, and I was struck by how invisible we were as street cleaners.

Nobody looked at us - the crowds parted around us and closed again behind us. I felt a bit ashamed that I have probably been the same in the past, and yet we all expect the litter we leave to be picked up.

One of the workers told me that when he is cleaning Queen Victoria Street in the vehicle, he is often boxed in by delivery vans. When he protests and says he needs to clean the street, the response he usually gets is ‘It's not my problem'.

And yet he was cheerful, as were they all. Another thing I noticed is that not one of them was overweight! Clearly there are health benefits in this type of work.

When we finished in the town centre, we went first to Whitley Street and then to Newtown. We used a push-along street cleaning machine in Newtown, and it's really hard to get the machines across the road on the dropped kerbs when people park on junctions.

I know Newtown has narrow streets and there is not much parking space, but Newtown people want clean streets too, as they tell me all the time.

I finished my shift shattered but exhilarated by having done a really useful piece of work.

Next time you see Tony, Julian and the other lads at work, stop for a friendly word. They do a